Trizay priory: cold revenge for a foundation
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Sometimes, the legend and the gory story mix with the ordinary foundation of a priory lost in middle of Charente... Trizay abbey used to be a dependency of the famous Chaise-Dieu abbey. A lord of Tonnay-Charente founded it, in the beginning of the 12th century. The legend says this lord had to go on crusades.
So, worried, he put his darling daughter in local religious’ care. But when he came back, she almost sank into madness: monks attacked and raped her... Lord of Tonnay went mad. He took revenge and killed them. One by one. He tied them up, put them in big bags and threw them alive in a well...
In a place called Fosse-aux-Moines ("Monks’ Pit") for a long time... But revenge was a bad thing! Well, rather unorthodox: the murderer will go in Hell... So our lord, in order to expiate his crime, founded Trizay priory. We find this legend especially in a volume of Commission des arts et monuments historiques de la Charente-inférieure (1891)...